Ed. Dept. Behind Schedule on 'Year 2000 Bug'

The Department of Education missed several deadlines it set for
itself last month for renovating its computer systems to avoid the
so-called Year 2000 computer glitch, according to the General
Accounting Office.

The behind-schedule systems involve key aspects of the student-loan
delivery system and handle exchanges of information between the
department and thousands of colleges and universities, lending
institutions, and loan-guarantee organizations.

Experts say they are worried that the delays might shorten the time
available for testing the systems.

"[The Education Department] faces a major task in conducting
thorough end-to-end testing of multiple compliant systems. That will
still be a major job ahead," Joel C. Willemssen, the director of civil
agencies information systems in the GAO's accounting and
information-management division, told a House subcommittee last
week.

But acting Deputy Secretary of Education Marshall S. Smith told the
panel that the department had made up for some of the delays last week.
He expressed confidence that the processes and services the department
oversees would not be disrupted by the glitch.

He said all but one of the 14 systems the department has identified
as "mission critical" are on schedule for being corrected, and repairs
to most of the department's other computer systems are on track.

In addition to loans for college students, the other
mission-critical systems are the department's own central accounting
system; the system that doles out federal impact aid to certain school
districts; and the department's internal network and e-mail
system.

Failing Grade

The Year 2000 bug, caused by computer programmers' decades-old
practice of using two digits to represent the year in date records,
could cause many computer systems to fail or give incorrect information
when the year becomes "00," experts say, because the computers may read
2000 as 1900.

The problem is vastly magnified in the computer systems of large
organizations that reuse the same date records for many functions and
exchange data with other organizations.

That's why the Education Department's support systems for student
financial aid are such a concern. The vast enterprise involves some
6,000 postsecondary institutions, 4,800 lenders, 36 guarantor agencies,
and state higher education agencies in delivering $46 billion each year
in assistance to 8.5 million students.

The loan systems have "thousands of interfaces" with universities
and lenders, said Karl M. Ross, the senior vice president of management
information systems for the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance
Agency. "If any single one doesn't work, you can't do business with
that partner. If you get a bad [data] tape in and accept it, it could
corrupt the department's data."

The Education Department needs practically all of next year to get
ready before the deadline that cannot be postponed--Jan. 1,
2000--according to Mr. Willemssen of the GAO, the investigative arm of
Congress.

Department officials expect to spend a total of $38 million on the
problem by 2000.

Despite the GAO criticisms, Mr. Willemssen said the department "did
make clear progress" since Sept. 17, the last time Mr. Smith reported
to the Committee on Education and the Workforce's oversight and
investigations subcommittee.

Early last month, the White House Office of Management and Budget
placed the department and several other agencies, including the
Department of Defense, in the lowest of three tiers of preparedness
among federal agencies. Also last month, Rep. Steve Horn, R-Calif., who
has been grading federal agencies on their Year 2000 readiness, awarded
the department an F.

No Time To Spare

At the Oct. 8 subcommittee hearing--largely vacated by House members
because of the concurrent debate on the presidential-impeachment
inquiry--Mr. Smith said the department would have a plan for testing
its systems with its customers by Nov. 15, though he couldn't predict
when the department would receive their feedback on the plan.

But Mr. Willemssen remained skeptical. "Given the magnitude and
complexity of the system, I'd be very pessimistic they have enough time
to complete testing. I'd expect them to continue testing up to December
1999. It's likely there will be some problems," he said.

Mr. Ross agreed that the biggest concerns are that the department
might reach its objectives late, reducing the time available for
testing. He added that even tested systems might produce errors, and
that the department needed contingency plans.

Department officials said they will draw up such plans and that they
have contracts with two outside companies--Booz-Allen & Hamilton
Inc. and Intermetrics Inc.--to validate and verify the agency's tests
independently.

At the heart of the testing process will be exchanges of data
between the department's systems and those of its outside partners,
many of which are also struggling to meet the 2000 deadline.

The U.S. Department of Education provides its five-phase strategy to
become compliant with Year 2000 bugs.

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